


Daylilies

by vevlvn



Series: stuff you didn't know you needed, but you do [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Peter is a florist, Precious Peter Parker, Tony is daddy material, and still sassy, and still spiderman, because my thoughts are IMPURE, send me straight past hell into the abyss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-07 22:20:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19858918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vevlvn/pseuds/vevlvn
Summary: where peter is a florist in NY and tony keeps having to apologize to people.peter is eighteen, tony never discovered spiderman, post civil war





	Daylilies

**Author's Note:**

> they're so cute gAH

Little bells rang, announcing a customers arrival along with a warm summer breeze drafting through the shop. Peter looks up from the cash register and sees a man casually walk in, almost a little sassy. Peter knew instantly who he was. He’s the one and only Tony Stark, Peter’s idol who he had seen in flesh and blood only once before when he was a little kid, wearing an Iron Man mask. Peter stresses out and doubts whether he should fangirl or play it cool. Peter decided to go for the latter and pretends not to notice him to sometimes attempt to catch a glimpse of him while he’s browsing the selection of different bouquets. Tony seems distressed by the amount of choices he has and finally notices Peter.

“Could you help me?” he asks, looking like he could really use it. Peter puts down the sunflowers he was trimming and his gaze is met with his idol’s eyes. They’re so deep and rich, like caramel, Peter could almost taste it and blushes a little. “Yeah,” he answers, wiping off his clammy hands, “how can I help?” Tony seems a little lost in who he’s looking at but catches his thoughts. “I actually need to say sorry to a friend of mine. We’ve,” he trails off and looks away, “fallen out.” Peter understands and thinks for a second, closing his eyes. Then he smiles and looks directly at the man he’s even dreamt of a couple of times. “I’ve got it,” Peter begins, leading him across the wall of potted plants, flowers and bouquets on shelves, creating a mural of colours and scents, “Peruvian lilies are perfect for long-term friendships that feel the need to be represented,” he stops in front of a row of colourful exotic looking flowers and his customer kneels down and looks at them. “In fact,” Peter keeps talking, “every petal symbolises an aspect of friendship. Compassion, patience, understanding, humour, decisiveness and respect.” Tony stares at the soft orange ones. “I surely haven’t done any of them,” he murmurs under his breath, probably not noticing Peter could hear him with his enhanced hearing. Peter was instantly doubtful. ‘How could he say that, he’s Iron Man!’ he thinks, as he takes out a bundle of the orange lilies. “Would you like to purchase these?” he asks Tony who’s getting up again. At once, peter notices he’s not much shorter than him and he giggles softly, changing the mood entirely. “Hey!” Tony exclaims, laying a hand on his chest faking that Peter hurt his feelings, “size doesn’t matter, kid.” he points out. Peter nods his head and sniggers at the man, walking them back to the cash register.

Along the way he grabs some greenery and a couple chamomile flowers and starts creating the bouquet, while his pretty funny and famous customer waits and looks around the shop more. It’s on 106th and looks very small from the outside with lots of green surrounding the entrance, but when you thought you’d seen most of the shop already by just looking through the door, you’d be surprised when you get inside. The place is a lot wider and a giant regal mirror is placed against the left wall, creating more of a jungle like feel with the amount of exotic and familiar plants you can see in one glance. “How long have you worked here, uhh,” he swiftly looks at the florist’s nameplate, “Peter?” he asks. Peter fixes his gaze on him “Well, Mr Stark,” he begins, and he sees Tony tensing up a little upon hearing his name, “my aunt May owns this shop, so ever since I was little I helped her out and now that I’ve graduated high school I get to work here a lot,” Peter tells him to see him content with the answer and a little more relaxed. He walks up to the cash register slash working station to look at how Peter was sporting his flower arrangement magic. “You do anything else?” Tony asks Peter, but he doesn’t answer, sparking Tony’s interest. Tony thought of more questions to ask but before he could come up with anything, the boy hands him the bouquet. It was beautifully put together and Tony hoped that Cap would accept his apology. “That’ll be fifteen...” Peter hesitates, “Sir,” reminding Tony that he has no right to ask a teenager questions. He reaches in his back pocket and fishes out the money plus another five dollars for the outstanding effort. When Peter notices the tip he smiles at Mr Stark and thanks him. Tony turns to walk away but Peter notices his eyes lingering for a split moment, although even though he really wants to think of it in a certain way, Peter never could. Maybe because of the age difference, but mostly because of the wedding ring on Tony’s finger. The bells ringing confirm that Tony has left the shop and Peter finally exhales. “Shit.” 

~

A week later Tony is heading to that florist again, since he was a dick to Pepper about something mind-bogglingly annoying. So there he goes, off to get another bouquet from that kid that did a wonderful job with the peruvian lilies. Cap loved them and they even took a picture together with the flowers in between the two of them. “Where did you get these?” Cap had asked him, in the hope of finding a hidden gem, but Tony kept it a secret for some reason. This is his gem now, especially since that Peter hadn’t freaked out about Tony being in his store. His aunt’s tore technically. The sun is out, heating up the pavement and shining through Tony’s tinted glasses. A warm summer breeze flows through his hair as he hears a woman yelling just a little up ahead. It causes Tony to run to her aid instantly, but then he hears her continue talking as he rounds the corner. “Do a flip!” she yells, and Tony stops running. “False alarm,” he heaves. Then, he notices who she was yelling at. A guy in a skin tight red and blue morph suit walks across a tightrope between two buildings. Tony zooms in with his glasses and tries to identify the bdsm gymnast, but only video’s pop up of him doing more stunts in the same red suit, calling himself The Amazing Spiderman. Spiderman does a flip on the tightrope as he was told and finger guns the lady. Only, as it appeared in Tony’s mind, as soon as the anonymous freerunner saw Tony, he seemed to almost freak out and falls off the rope. Too quick for Tony to take action, he sees a web being shot out from Spiderman’s wrist and latches onto a building, web-swinging himself away from the crowd that seemed to enjoy his stunts, including Tony. “Oh great,” Tony sighs, “another goddamn superhero.” After witnessing those stunts he continues to walk to the florist, having to take another couple of selfies with men and women who idolized Iron Man as if he was perfect. ‘If only you knew the mistakes I’ve made,’ he thinks as he walks into the florist on 106th.

It looked closed from the outside but the door was open, so Tony just went in. Being greeted by the scent and sight of so many different flora, he looks around to try and find Peter, thinking he would find him sitting on the floor somewhere potting a plant, or behind the cash register helping a customer. But he is the only one here, no Peter in sight. “Kid?” Tony asks around, but no one is answering, “You should really close up shop before you leave,” “I know, sorry,” he hears from behind him.

Peter is standing in the doorway with his backpack on, some dirt on his grey hoodie and a scratch on his cheek. “I was just,” Peter thinks for a second, “out, I guess. No one came in so I took a break.” Tony looks a little worried. “What happened?” he asks. Peter seems confused about what Tony is saying until he looks in the mirror. “Oh this, I uh- fell,” he admits and scratches his neck. Tony still didn’t trust it, but the kid looks quite cute, all messy. “So what brings you back Mr Stark?” Peter asks, taking off his backpack and hoodie to throw on a pastel pink sweater with the shop’s logo on it. Even cuter. “Well uh, I sorta have to apologize to someone again,” he mumbles, not knowing if Peter could hear that. “Same person?” “No, my wife this time.” Peter doesn’t respond for a minute and looks something up on the computer by the cash register, “Pepper Potts,” he murmurs. Tony looks down at his feet. “That’s the one,” “She seems like a roses lady,” Peter mentions and nods at Tony, “ever given her flowers before?” Tony shakes his head. Peter chuckles at that and leads the two of them to the stand with rose bouquets. “While red is classic and romantic, the yellow roses are apologetic, only more friendly, so we’re in a bit of a dilemma,” Peter explains. Tony weighs his options, but comes to a conclusion. “Let’s go with yellow.” Tony looks at Peter, seeing something cross his mind. “Must be one hell of a fight, huh,” Peter says and Tony sighs defeatedly, “I don’t even know if she’ll take me back because of this.”

“What happened?” Peter asks, taking the yellow roses and some white ones for unity, to go back to his work station. “She has had to put up with my stupidity and been by my side for so long that I might have forgotten to mention something to her even after we got married,” Tony begins, leaning down with both arms on the other side of the workbench. Peter glances at them for a second, “Oh, what’s that?” he asks Tony absentmindedly. He looks away at some cacti in the distance, not knowing how the boy will react, or how anybody would react for that matter. He’s never told anybody this before, well except for Pepper last night, “that I’m bisexual,” he finishes. Peter looks up at Tony and sees those caramel eyes looking back at him. “Oh, t-that’s,” Peter swallows the words he was about to say. Mr Stark tries to finish the sentence, “Shocking? Weird? Funny-”

“Cool,” Peter says, “I think it’s cool.” Mr Stark looks at him weirdly and confused. “Really? You don’t think it’s weird that I kept it from her?”    
“I would’ve done it differently,” Peter starts, handing Tony the finished bouquet, “but that’s only from experience.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t tell my ex about my sexuality either, then again, I kept more secrets than that.” he explains. Tony nods in complete understanding with the bouquet in his hands, still staring at Peter. His lips seem so soft, he could kiss them right here right now, underneath the ceiling plants and amongst the dandelions, in the shade of the blinds half closed, the sun getting low. He catches himself however and returns back to reality when he hears another customer come in. “What do they cost?” Tony asks holding up the stunning bouquet and he pays the sum including another tip. Hastily, he leaves and catches his breath. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Tony?” he lectures himself just outside the door, unaware that Peter heard it. 

~

Peter is laying down on his bed in his own apartment. With the money he and his aunt saved for college he got a place for himself instead, able to help out aunt May with the store and having plenty of time to see his friends, that is if his friends didn’t go off to college, which they did. Not only is the shop filled with plants and flowers, so is his place. Even his antique dresser is decorated with greenery, complementing the comfy hoodies he has hanging in his closet. He gets up and strolls past his desk cluttered with books towards his kitchen, opening up the fridge to try and calm his hunger. He wishes being a friendly neighbourhood hero earns some money because that way he wouldn’t have to live off instant noodles and cereal. But he is happy either way, since now he can sleep soundly knowing that the entire neighborhood is safe and under his care, just like his plants. His living room is very small but in Aunt May’s words: “small but cozy!” Peter grins at the memory of them moving his stuff in and decorating the place.

He still has an autographed art print of War Machine hanging above his terrarium. The day he saw a Meet 'N Greet announced on twitter announced by War Machine himself, he called Aunt May to ask if she could work a little longer so he could go to the ‘Greet.

He remembers jumping up and down with Ned on his couch after they got the autograph and baking cookies shaped like robots to celebrate. Sadly the next morning Ned had to leave to Boston for Harvard, but even though Peter wouldn’t see Ned again until thanksgiving they could still skype. Peter taps on the glass of the terrarium to see Kitty, his tarantula escape into it’s little cave Peter built himself. He grins and sits on the floor, defeated. “AAAH!” He yells in frustration, catching himself hoping that Iron Man would just appear at his door outta nowhere, asking what’s wrong. But to no avail. Nobody cares and he’s all alone.


End file.
